When the du Football Cham­pi­ons or­gan­is­ers an­nounced that they would se­lect a team to play against the best youth sides in Spain it sounded as though they were in for a hiding to noth­ing. Try­ing to put to­gether a squad of 18 from more than 7,000 play­ers sounded dif­fi­cult enough, but to then coach them to a level to be able to com­pete against pro­fes­sional academy sides seemed im­pos­si­ble. But the duFC Elite Team held their own in games against Malaga, Real Betis and Cor­doba, as well as beat­ing Granada. Speak­ing af­ter that vic­tory, head coach Rafael Gil said: “We have been work­ing with these tal­ented play­ers since March and we are very proud of their su­pe­rior per­for­mance. “Based on the level they played, I am cer­tain that we will see some fu­ture pro-play­ers com­ing up the ranks in the team.” Hav­ing ex­celled through­out the camp in Spain, cap­tain Mouhamed Bouher­rafa now hopes that he can ful­fill his dream of be­com­ing a pro­fes­sional foot­baller. “I joined be­cause I knew that I had nat­u­ral abil­ity, but when I came to Spain I saw the level of de­ter­mi­na­tion and fo­cus it takes to reach a pro­fes­sional level of play,” he said. “What I know for sure is that is not im­pos­si­ble and af­ter a few more months of train­ing with the coaches we will get there.” Cen­tre-back Yu­veer Kelkar added: “Over­all my fit­ness and tac­ti­cal skills have im­proved im­mensely and I can’t wait to keep train­ing.” The play­ers will now con­tinue their football ed­u­ca­tion at the du La Liga High Per­for­mance Cen­tre in Dubai.